


Promise Buoy

by StarXrossed



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 22:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarXrossed/pseuds/StarXrossed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>takes place in an AU where there's no School Life of Mutual Killing hollaaaa</p>
    </blockquote>





	Promise Buoy

**Author's Note:**

> takes place in an AU where there's no School Life of Mutual Killing hollaaaa

“They aren’t healthy.”  
  
“They are too!”   
  
“Asahina-kun, I can most definitely assure you, doughnuts are  _not_  a healthy food.  They’re riddled with lipids and calories.”  Ishimaru crossed his arms, his tone matter-of-fact.  He and Aoi sat outside the dorms, lunches in their laps.  Sakura had had things to attend to during the lunch break, and Aoi had found Ishimaru alone on his usual bench and had perched beside him before he could protest (not that he would have.)  They had remained in relative silence for most of the meal—Ishimaru was a mediocre conversationalist, despite Aoi’s best efforts—until the Super High School Level Swimmer had pulled out a pair of doughnuts and had devoured both in record time.  
  
“Ishimaru-kun, that’s not what I mean!” Aoi leaned back against the wall, stretching her arms up towards the sky.  She turned towards the boy, her brow furrowing.  ”They’re good for your  _soul_!  Doughnuts are a symbol of all that’s good with the world!”  
  
Ishimaru blinked confusedly, opening and closing his mouth a few times as he tried to form words.  ”A-asahina-kun, I don’t think…that’s…correct….”  
  
“Sure it is!”  Aoi clapped her hands and stared fixedly at Ishimaru.  ”Doughnuts are shaped like rings, right?  Rings are a symbol of never ending!!  Like a circle, y’know?  It’s a symbol of focus!  Wholeness!  Perfection!  Just like doughtnuts.”  She grinned.  ”Doughnuts are a symbol of everything that’s right with the world.”    
  
“I think you’re reading a little too much into a simple pastry, Asahina-kun,” Ishimaru sighed, frowning.  The thought of some confectionary treat having so much significance baffled him; it was just a dessert, it didn’t have some sort of special meaning.    
  
“Don’t be such a stick in the mud, Ishimaru-kun!  Regardless of the form, circles are important!  Rings are important!  And therefore, doughnuts are important!”  Aoi nodded her head, the tone of her voice hinting that the matter was not up for debate.  ”Not to mention….”  
  
The disciplinary committee member raised his eyebrows slightly.  ”Not to mention what?”  
  
“Nothing.  Well.  Y’see,” Aoi started, looking down at her feet and swinging her legs in a manner reminiscent of a little kid, “doughtnuts are special to me!”  
  
Ishimaru tilted his head, puzzled.  ”They have some kind of deep-set significance?”    
  
“Uh-huh!”  The swimmer kicked her feet up and brought them down quickly, using the momentum to hoist herself off of the bench.  ”Y’see, when I was little, I loved swimming.  It was my favorite thing to do!”  She spun on her heel and faced Ishimaru.  ”I was good at it too—I was like a fish!  My parents had to always drag me away from the pool,” she giggled behind her hand.  ”I loved to push the boundaries, swim out farther than anyone else in lessons—the instructors never had any trouble with me.  My mom and dad never worried about me in the water, and I would always go out to the deep end and paddle around.”  She looked down at her feet, her lips twisting into a sad smile.  ”I was good at it, but….  I got a little ambitious.  I kinda…swam out too far.  I was okay, but all of a sudden, I got really, really tired.  It got hard to keep my head up!  I tried to get to the wall, but my arms felt really sluggish and heavy, like they were made out of lead or something!  I felt myself going under the water, and I tried to cry out, but water kept getting in my mouth.  It was…really scary….”  
  
Ishimaru listened intently, eyes widening as Aoi continued.  ”I was really afraid, y’know?  Afraid no one could hear me.  I was afraid I was gonna die just from being overly ambitious.”    
  
“A-asahina-kun….”  
  
“But then, but then!!”  Aoi’s face lit up, and Ishimaru jumped from her sudden change in attitude.  ”Just when I started to lose hope, I made one last struggle and reached out—and my hand closed around something!  It was sturdy and felt kind of plastic-y, but I latched onto it, and it let me pull my head above water.”  The girl bounced on the balls of her feet, grinning at Ishimaru.  ”It was a ring buoy!  A big, round, white-and-red ring buoy!  The guard saw me struggling, so he threw it out and I grabbed it and he pulled me to the side.  He saved me….”  
  
She hopped from one foot to the other, laughing gently.  ”That’s what prompted me to wanna be a lifeguard in the first place!  I wanted to be able to help others, like the way he helped me!  And that’s why I wanted to be a good swimmer too, a better swimmer—the very best!  I…I didn’t want to ever put myself in that position again.  I didn’t ever want to, y’know.  Put myself in a position I couldn’t get out of, like I did that day.  I wanted to get stronger, y’see?”  
  
“I…I think so,” Ishimaru murmured, looking up at Aoi tentatively.  He had never heard that story—he had always assumed she had been a great swimmer, that she had never had a scare with water.  When the two of them worked out, her movements always seemed to flow so naturally, like they were second nature, but….  Even so, he should have realized she wasn’t always that good a swimmer.    
“But’s why I love doughnuts so much!”    
  
Aoi’s voice drew Ishimaru from his thoughts.  ”Because of the lifeguard?”  
  
“No, silly—well, sorta.  But because of the ring buoy!”  She laughed, bouncing lightly.  ”Doughnuts and buoys have the same shape!  So whenever I see a doughnut, I remember that promise I made to myself!  That I’d get stronger, so I wouldn’t have to be saved again!  By anyone!  Or anything.  See, Ishimaru-kun?”  She flashed him a bright smile.  ”That’s why doughnuts are so important to me!”  
  
“I…see….”  
  
Much to Aoi’s surprise, the next day Ishimaru presented her with a simple white box filled with small cake-like rings adorned with white and red stripes, patterned like a ring buoy.    
  
“You said doughnuts remind you of those buoys,” Ishimaru said stiffly, blood pluming in his cheeks as he thrust the box into Aoi’s hands.  ”Th-the ones you eat aren’t decorated properly, then!  These better fit your ideal doughnut!”  
  
Aoi blinked, a slight pink tint to her face as she examined the baked goods.  ”Ishimaru-kun, th-these are amazing!  Where did you find them?”  
  
“I um.  I made them myself.”  
  
“Even the frosting?” Aoi gasped.  ”But it’s so well done!”  
  
Ishimaru blushed harder.  ”My mother showed me how to bake and frost when I was little.  It’s…a skill I don’t use often, but it is still invaluable nonetheless.  I think you’ll find these doughnuts are more…healthy than your usual choice.”  
  
Before the words left his mouth, Aoi had already devoured half of a doughnut, a dreamy look in her eyes.  ”Ishimaru-kun, these are amazing!” she exclaimed, her words muffled by the pastry.  She swallowed, then grinned broadly at the boy.  ”Th-thank you so much!  These are—this is—gosh…!”    
  
Ishimaru’s face flushed violently red as Aoi leaned over and gave him a soft peck on the cheek.  He started say something, but before he could, Aoi shoved the other half of the doughnut into his agape mouth.  
  
“There!  Now you’ll have to burn off that off along with me at practice!”  She laughed, spinning on her heels and casting Ishimaru a wink over her shoulder.  ”No excuses, Ishimaru-kun, gotta make up for eating all those lipids and calories!”


End file.
